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New Scientist Live

Feeling uncertain? It’s the new normal in Theresa May’s Britain

Young people may prefer the uncertainly of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, compared with Conservative leader Theresa May

Dave Thompson/Getty Images

By James Bloodworth

Today’s election result in the UK, a hung parliament in which no party commands a majority, will have unsettled many. Especially so at a time of major challenges – notably Brexit, the tangled process of leaving the European Union, which could have serious consequences.

There are so many unknowns. Can the largest party, the Conservatives, continue to govern effectively? Will there be another election soon? Will prime minister Theresa May be replaced? Is a soft, rather than a hard, Brexit now on the cards?

In tumultuous times, people tend to seek solid things to hold on to. Humans prefer certainty over uncertainty. No wonder May is constantly mentioning the former even though she knows we are facing the latter.

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This desire to get on solid ground is partly explained by the stress that uncertainty can cause, the subject of a study published in Nature in 2016. Participants took a computer test in which they had to turn over rocks to uncover snakes. If they uncovered a snake, they were given a small electric shock. Stress peaked when there was a 50:50 chance of finding a snake – in other words when uncertainty was at its highest.

Stress can feel uncomfortable and raises levels of the hormone cortisol. The many health effects of cortisol are well known. It can hamper learning and memory, lower immune function, lead to weight gain and raise blood pressure, cholesterol and heart disease risk. No wonder we try to avoid it.

But there is another aspect of uncertainty at the heart of last night’s result. The shift away from “strong and stable” May to the unknown quantity that is Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, which seems to go against the idea that voters tend to opt for solidity in difficult times.

It is arguable that for many people, another five years on the government’s current trajectory is itself potentially riddled with uncertainty.

For example, if you are one of the many young people who turned out in unprecedented numbers to vote for Labour, it might be that university debt, difficulty getting on the housing ladder and the prospect of Brexit generated a much greater level of uncertainty and therefore unease than the prospect of the untried Corbyn at the helm.

It is said that we often look to strong leaders in difficult times. But instead of simply accepting May’s strong and stable mantra, perhaps political pundits would have more accurately predicted the result of the election if they had asked: strong and stable – for whom?